This is not “just politics,” Howard. It’s about the Constitution, the rule of law, about what kind of a country we’re becoming. And “politics” is not a bad word, Howard. Politics is what makes America work, what separates it from dictatorships. It’s how we translate the “consent of the governed” into lawful actions by the government.
And really, yeah, you know? This annoys me in much the same way that people who get elected and then complain that people in Washington just aren’t nice annoy me. I never feel like it’s genuine, this Cult of Nice that’s taken over such that you can’t criticize anyone or anything without being accused of “taking an unproductive tone” or some other such passive-aggressive bullshit.
(I’m not saying we all have to be dicks for no reason, I am saying that calling somebody out over how he’s saying something so you don’t have to discuss what he’s saying is a time-honored piece of rhetorical jackassery the practice of which makes me want to eat my own head. I know fifteen meatspace people approximately whose preferred method of argument is this and I have to deal with them all the damn time. One of these days I’m going to snap and start throwing things.)
It’s a power thing, really, this whole “don’t worry your pretty little heads about it” line Fineman and others take. It’s a way of pointing out how superior they are, first of all, to be so above the fray as to not give a shit about the machinations of the parties and the ways in which those machinations affect governing. They don’t get angry about this stuff. They don’t get upset or worse, hysterical. This makes them better people than the rest of us, who get so worked up we actually write and call and bother them with our opinions. This doesn’t just make them better journalists, it makes them better human beings, and it’s a way of defusing the argument and making the conversation not political but personal, a conversation about why I have to be so angry, instead of what it is I’m actually pissed off about.
For example, no matter what the Attorney General of the United Fucking States of America fucking lied about to Congress, if I get angry enough to say “fucking” that many times in a sentence, I lose, because it’s just politics, after all. It’s not like it means anything. Why bother getting so worked up?
A.
Sigh. It’s like punching the ocean, fighting this sort of stuff. No matter how hard you try, the stupid is still vast, deep, powerful, and full of scary things with lots of big eyes.
Oh, Athenae, don’t be so shrill.
And you’re so cute when you’re angry!
/snark
A, can I be you when I grow up?
Cuz I think it, incoherently, but you write it, beautifully.
They don’t get angry about this stuff. They don’t get upset or worse, hysterical. This makes them better people than the rest of us, who get so worked up we actually write and call and bother them with our opinions
My folks think my political involvement is a sign that I either (1) have an anxiety disorder, or (2) I’m depressed. Either way they think my political concern and, yes, anger, can be medicated away.
No amount of telling them that I’d rather be awake to the suffering around me, and involved in trying to assuage it, rather than oblivious to it will convince them that it is anything but a mild mental illness. Go figure.
You forgot, “Schmuck.” at the end, but, my GAWD, Athenae… RIGHT THERE, AND DON’T EVER STOP!
–mf
I’m glad Dorothy made the joke because I don’t have the stones to.
well, it WAS nicer before Newt.